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Rag-Quilted Pillows

After thinking about it for a long time (as usual), I finally got around to sewing a few rag quilt-style throw pillows. When I snapped these photos, the light was a little low, and they turned out a bit blurry. Maybe I'll take and post a few better ones, one of these days, but I thought I'd better share what I have so far, before I forget to blog about them altogether. ;o)

I used a variety of fabrics in colors and prints that coordinate with the colors in the rug and sofas in our living room. There's a lot of tan/beige, cream, and brown in that room, with accents in green and rusty red. The fabrics I used ranged from denim and flannel to cotton blends.

Rag Quilted Pillow

I followed the usual rag-quilting procedures. Each pillow is basically two (very) mini rag quilts sewn together around the edges and stuffed with fiberfill. You could get away with one mini rag quilt per pillow (using a single piece of fabric for the pillow back), if you wanted to speed up the process, but I thought it'd be nice if they were pretty (and raggedy) on both sides.

Rag Quilted Pillow

I considered making removable pillow shams, but in the end, I went with a sewn-shut design. (We'll see how they hold up.) If I have to, I can always rip the seams for laundering, but I'm hoping that vacuuming and spot-cleaning will suffice for a good long while.

Rag Quilted Pillows

They came out looking a little "rustic country"-- a little more so than I'd expected-- but I think they'll fit in with our decor. I would still love to see how a blue jeans rag quilt pillow would turn out, but the blue denim wouldn't match our living room. . .

I think a denim rag-quilted jumbo pillow would make a wonderful dog bed-- very durable, and cheap, too, if you used cast-off blue jeans as material. (You could sew in a zipper or use ties or buttons to make for easy laundering.) Unfortunately, my crazy Eskie, Trixie, would just chew and tear it apart (and likely eat a good bit of it, in the process!). Molly, our Cocker Spaniel, would probably be ok with one, but keeping it away from Trixie would be a constant struggle. Maybe one day she'll calm down enough to be trusted with a nice dog bed/blanket. . .